ANC blamed for Tshwane's water woes

Executive mayor Solly Msimanga. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Executive mayor Solly Msimanga. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Feb 27, 2017

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Pretoria – The DA mayor’s spokesperson has blamed the ANC local government for the city’s broken water pipes.

The ANC did not maintain or replace water infrastructure in 20 years of running the city.

This meant that on Monday, communities suffered water shortages and disruptions, said Samkelo Mgobozi, spokesperson for executive mayor Solly Msimanga.

He was responding to a complaint by city resident Astrid de la Rey, who wrote to the city about numerous broken water pipes in Lynnwood Glen.

“The infrastructure of the city is incredibly old. Nothing was done by the ANC administration to maintain and replace it, and that goes back almost 20 years with pipes that are in excess of 60 years old,” Mgobozi said in reply to De la Rey.

“You are correct in your assertion that this issue is not unique to Lynnwood. It is a problem that the city’s new administration is trying to deal with in myriad communities across the municipality."

“This is the third largest geographical municipality in the world. That in itself presents its own challenges,” he said.

De la Rey contacted the Pretoria News to complain about the water pipe bursts in her area.

There had been, on average, one burst pipe every month in the past year, she said.

Penny’s Way, Camellia and Riviervallei streets were often affected. “Over the past 12 months, there have been at least 12 burst water pipes just in these three roads,” she said.

“Each time the municipality comes out to fix them they apologise, explaining they are only patching the problem as there are no funds to replace all the pipes.”

The burst pipes affected residents as the homeowners had to fix the damaged pavements at their own cost, she said.

“Please explain how rates keep climbing, but the city keeps wasting money by not fixing problems correctly? Surely it costs much more to waste water and apply temporary fixes than to fix it properly once-off.”

Mgobozi said he had been trying to address the situation.

He stressed the mayor’s promise: “ the city ended the 2015/16 financial year with an operating deficit of about R2billion, which meant a funding compliance gap which must now be addressed within the 2016/17 adjustments budget.”

Mgobozi said it would take R13million to replace the aged infrastructure.

The new administration was making progress, but could not fix everything in the few months since taking power after the August local government elections.

Pretoria News

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